Crave Playlist | Most Anticipated Albums of 2018

New releases from Migos, Jack White, and (maybe) Kanye will set the tune for 2018.

Photo: NBC (Getty Images)

Now, that we’ve turned the page on 2017, it’s time to skip ahead to the new year. There’s a lot to be excited about in the world of music as we can expect new releases from some of the biggest names in the game as well as up-and-comers who will you hear a lot from in 2018.

Tune-Yards’ Merill Garbus is kinda, sorta like the female Beck. The pop experimentalist throws her many Americana music inspirations into a juicer, extracting loops, beats, handclaps, and whatever else into finely-tuned, organic tunes that feel like a soul cleanse of all the overly processed music that we’re fed.

Migos – “Culture 2”

Release Date: Jan. 26

The Atlanta trio’s third studio album is the most hyped hip hop release of the new year. It will be hard to replicate the first Culture album, which spawned the viral hit “Bad and Boujee”, but Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff seem up to the challenge with help from Nicki Minaj, Pharrell, and Bodak Yellow star Cardi B (Offset’s fiance who is also releasing a 2018 album).

Justin Timberlake – Man of the Woods

Release Date: Feb. 2

When the Prince of Pop released a teaser trailer announcing that his long awaited follow-up to the uneven 20/20 was titled, Man of the Woods, everyone was expecting some type of unfiltered, lumbersexual-type makeover in the vein of his country roots. That excitement has simmered down quite a bit with JT’s first couple singles, which are less Bon Iver and more of the same autotuned-sex-funk that you hear on the radio.

Superorganism – self-titled

Release Date: March 2

To be honest, this eight-piece indie-electronic collective wasn’t on my radar until recently, but upon hearing their first single (above), I was hooked. Their unique, spirited Soundcloud sound reminds me of Gorillaz meets Mitski, and comes not surprisingly from a band with members hailing from England, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

David Byrne – American Utopia Release Date: March 9th

The Talking Heads frontman is music’s equivalent to the film world’s David Lynch. Both are beloved auteurs, who’re still breaking boundaries with enigmatic works that challenge their art forms. It’s been a decade since Byrne’s last solo album so fans will be lining up for his forthcoming tour which he’s called “the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads’ seminal 1984 concert film).

Jack White – Boarding House Reach

Release Date: March 23

When Jack White makes music people listen. The prolific singer, songwriter, producer, label head, etc is back with his solo follow-up to 2014’s Lazaretto. White has hilariously described Boarding House Reach as “good gardening music or roofing music or, you know, back-alley stabbing music.”

Kanye West – TURBO GRAFX 16 (well, for now… we think)

Release Date: TBA

(Photo by Robert Kamau/GC Images)

Mr. West has been making more babies than music lately, (welcome Chicago West), but after a tumultuous past couple years (JAY-Z beefs, Trump photo ops, cancelled tour, breakdown) since the release Life of Pablo, he needed to go away. Although nothing has been officially announced, music’s most polarizing figure has been rumored to be working on a new album on a Wyoming mountaintop retreat with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Migos and Kid Cudi.

GorillazRelease Date: TBD

Sorry, but after so much hype and delays, Gorillaz’s politically-fueled Humanz fell flat. I’m chalking it up to rust as mastermind Damon Albarn has said that they have new material (like their bonus track above) and will be releasing a new album in 2018, which I hope will be a do-over.